Happy World Press Freedom Day

Today serve as a reminder to councilors , Executive council chairmen, supervisory councillors,HoDs, state , House of representatives and senate lawmakers representing the good people of Kosofe Federal constituency in one capacity or the order need to respect their commitment to press freedom.

It will be honourable for the various elected or appointed representatives honours Press freedom rather than allowing the freedom of information act to be invoked against them which makes them dishonorable.

At Our local levels some elected or appointed representatives has been responsive in terms of press freedom while others are still hostile due to high degree of corruption or ignorance or emotional attachment.

Kosofepost, has decided to continue to be propagating the principle of Thomas Jefferson’s “Negative effect to positive effect” by converting public press freedom hostility to sympathy, from prejudice to acceptance, from apathy to interest and from ignorance to knowledge.

Its a difficult tasks but gradually the sympathy, acceptance, interest and knowledge of press freedom is on the increase daily as observed by Kosofepost.

According to the United Nation, Every year, 3 May is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. World Press Freedom Day proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991.

This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence.

It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom – a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.

It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favour of press freedom, and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide.

3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.